Paths and Choices
by FluffytheHedgehog
Summary: What if Harry Potter had shaken Draco Malfoy's hand on the train? One simple choice leads to a completely different path.
1. One Simple Choice

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, regrettably. If I did, I wouldn't be writing a disclaimer. Props to Pipthepenguin, who gave me this idea. I probably have lots of errors, because I'm too lazy to edit. Please review, this is my first fanfic. This particular story starts after the Dursleys leave Harry Potter at King's Cross in the first book. Hope you like it!**

As the Dursleys drove away, Harry felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Uncle Vernon had been right, of course. There was no platform nine and three-quarters. There was platform nine, and platform ten, but between those two platforms there was nothing but a brick barrier rising up to the ceiling. He looked around, spotted a guard, and stopped him.

"Excuse me," Harry said. The guard looked at him. "Excuse me, could you tell me where I could find platform nine and three-quarters?"

The guard glanced over his shoulder and beckoned Harry closer. "New to Hogwarts, eh?" he muttered. "To get onto the platform, you've got to walk into the barrier between nine and ten." He straightened up and walked away, leaving Harry mystified.

He supposed he should follow the guard's advice, as he had known about Hogwarts. Besides, he was getting some rather funny looks because of Hedwig. Harry pushed his cart round until he was facing the barrier. Taking a deep breath, he walked towards the barrier. As he got closer, he grew less confident. The barrier did look awfully solid. Just before the imminent crash, Harry closed his eyes, bracing himself.

He didn't crash. Opening his eyes, he saw a scarlet steam engine waiting at the platform. A sign said Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock. A wrought iron gateway was behind him where the barrier had been, with the words _Platform Nine and Three-Quarters_ on it.

"Wow," he breathed. Quickly, he set off in search of an empty compartment. He found one near the end of the train and heaved Hedwig and his trunk into the train. Wiping sweat from his forehead – his trunk really did weigh a lot – Harry sat back and waited patiently to leave.

The train began to move in a matter of minutes. Harry, looking out the window, saw a dumpy woman with red hair waving right outside his compartment. A little girl with the same red hair ran alongside the train until it got too fast, and she slowed to a stop. Then the train turned the corner, and the platform went out of sight.

Harry felt a bubble of excitement burst inside his stomach. He was going to Hogwarts!

The compartment door slid open suddenly, and Harry jumped. A boy with red hair and freckles poked his head in, looking around.

"Sorry to bother you," he said, not looking sorry at all. "All the other compartments are full. Do you mind?" Without waiting for an answer, the boy sat down across from Harry.

Harry did mind, and he felt irritated. He wanted some time to think – alone. But he couldn't find a polite way to tell the boy to go away, so he stayed silent.

"I'm Weasley, by the way. Ron Weasley." The boy – Weasley – looked expectantly at Harry.

"Harry Potter," he said stiffly. Weasley's eyes widened.

"Really? Wow! So do you have the scar, then? You know, on your head?"

Harry was starting to get really annoyed. He did have a scar, of course, but he had no intention of showing it to this pushy, rude, obnoxious boy. "Of course I have a scar," Harry snapped.

"Well, let's see it, then."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to." Harry, fed up with the Weasley boy's poking, turned pointedly away and stared out the window. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Weasley looked uncomfortable. Good. That would show him to barge into compartments uninvited.

The two boys sat in stiff silence for a while. Then Weasley pulled out a mouse – no, a rat from his pocket and showed it to Harry.

"His name's Scabbers," Weasley said. "He was my brother's."

"Facinating," Harry said coldly. Weasley fell silent.

Just then, there was a clattering noise from outside the compartment and a smiling old woman slid back the door and said, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Harry, who was starving, leapt to his feet, ignoring Weasley's mutter about having sandwiches. He went out into the corridor and stared at all the wizarding food the witch had on the cart. Reading the labels, he saw Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, Pumpkin Juice, and other strange foods. He bought a little of everything and ended up paying eleven Sickles and seven Knuts.

Weasley, who was munching on a sandwich, stared at all the food as Harry tipped it onto an empty seat.

"Hungry now, are we?"

Harry shot him a cold look and took a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty. It wasn't bad at all. Weasley watched enviously as Harry devoured several of them, and then proceeded to open a packet of Chocolate Frogs. He ignored the hungry look on Weasley's face, preferring instead to bite off the frog's head.

Weasley said quietly, "There's a trading card in there, just so you know." He pointed at the packaging.

Harry looked at him, and then picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a crooked nose, and had silver hair, a beard, and a mustache. The name underneath the picture was Albus Dumbledore.

"Huh. I didn't expect Dumbledore to be so old," Harry said. Weasley stifled a laugh. When Harry glared at him, he explained.

"Sure, he's old, but he's the best headmaster Hogwarts has ever had."

"Whatever." Harry tossed the card aside and continued eating the chocolate frog. When he finished, he proceeded to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

Weasley made another effort to be nice and warned, "You have to be careful with those. They do really mean _every_ flavor. There are the normal ones like chocolate, strawberry, and peppermint, but they've also got spinach, liver, and tripe. My brother thinks he got a booger one once."

"Okay," muttered Harry. He carefully selected some beans and got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and pepper.

Looking outside the window again, he was surprised to see that all the fields were gone. In their place were woods, rivers, and hills.

A knock on their compartment told them someone was coming. The door opened and a round-faced, pudgy boy came in. He looked like he was crying.

"Sorry, have any of you seen a toad?" he asked.

"Yep, I have," Harry said. The boy brightened, but then Harry finished, "I just ate a couple of chocolate ones." He smirked at the boy.

Weasley said, "We haven't got any toads in here, sorry." The boy backed out of the compartment miserably.

Harry and Weasley sat in silence. Once again, Weasley was the one to break it.

"My brother gave me a spell to try on Scabbers, want to see? It's supposed to turn him yellow."

Harry grunted noncommittally, which Weasley took as a yes. Taking out his wand, he cleared his throat and was about to begin when the compartment door opened again. The boy who lost his toad was back, along with a girl wearing Hogwarts robes already.

Before she could speak, Harry said exasperatedly, "We haven't seen your bloody toad!"

But the girl was looking at Weasley's raised wand. "Are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

Weasley looked taken aback. He cleared his throat and said,

"_Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!"_

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. His rat most certainly did not turn yellow.

"Are you sure that's a real spell? It's not very good," the girl said. "I've tried some simple ones, and they've all worked for me. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?

"Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter." Harry said. "Now, if you don't mind, we – er – have to change into our robes, excuse us."

"Oh," said Granger looking hurt. She left the compartment, taking the toadless boy with her. At the threshold, she turned back and added, " If you see Neville's toad, would you mind telling us? Thanks." And she left.

Harry and Weasley changed into their robes quickly, before anyone else could barge in. They sat in silence for a long time; Weasley didn't try to break it this time. Harry was just thinking of opening another pack of Chocolate Frogs when the door slid open _again_. It wasn't the toadless boy or Granger this time, though.

Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one as the pale boy he had met at Madam Malkin's in Diagon Alley. He looked at Harry with interest.

"Is it true?" he said. "Everyone is saying you're Harry Potter."

"Yep," Harry said. The other two boys were thickset and looked mean. They looked like bodyguards, the way they were standing on either side of the pale boy.

"This is Crabbe and Goyle," Said the pale boy. "I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Weasley suppressed a snigger. Draco Malfoy sneered at him.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask your's. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."

He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He held out his hand to shake Harry's. Harry glanced at Weasley, whose face was red with embarrassment and anger. Then he looked back at Draco's hand.

"Potter…" Weasley muttered. "Don't do it, Potter."

Harry half smirked, half sneered at Weasley, then turned to Draco and shook his hand, smiling.

**What'd you think? Good? Bad? Okay? Please, please, **_**please**_** review! I appreciate it!**


	2. Troubled Thoughts

**Disclaimer: I do not own HP. If I did, then the Malfoys would be nice. **

**Thanks to the five people that reviewed. I did reply to a few, but I might as well here too.**

**To cocobyrd87: Thanks, I want to see where this leads too!**

**To Pipthepenguin: Thank you, I kind of had the book open in front of me the whole time.**

**To SmurphingSmurf: Thanks for reviewing, I appreciate it!**

**To delatrix: That was only the first chapter, I'm still kind of getting into the whole character depth stuff and everything. Thanks for reviewing!**

**To Guest: Thanks! I wanted to try something where Harry had a different personality, and see how that went. **

**Sorry this took so long to update, there were a lot of ways this chapter could have gone, and I was fussing a lot over details. Enjoy and please review!**

"Nice to meet you, Draco," Harry said.

"Likewise, Potter."

Harry looked at Weasley, who had an incredulous look on his face. "Sorry, Weasley, but I don't think we really get along." Then he looked back at Draco. "Shall I move to your compartment, then?" Draco smirked and nodded.

Harry, with the help of Crabbe and Goyle, managed to heave his trunk, owl, and all the sweets and foods out into the corridor. Glancing back at Weasley, Draco sneered and looked away. They started heaving all the stuff down the hallway to Draco's compartment, which was mercifully only a couple compartments down.

Sliding open the door, Harry noticed a hard-faced, dark-haired girl and a tall black boy sitting already.

"That's Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini," Draco said. "Pansy, Blaise, this is the one and only Harry Potter." He smirked.

"Nice to meet you," Harry offered. Pansy and Blaise stayed silent.

When his trunk was stowed away and Hedwig was comfortably seated in an empty spot, they all sat down. Draco broke the silence.

"What house are you hoping to be in?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he said, "We're all headed for Slytherin, of course. What about you, Potter?"

"Er-"said Harry. He remembered what Hagrid had said about Slytherin – Voldemort himself had been in that house. He also mentioned that there were four of them, and Harry only knew two so far. "I don't know all the houses," he confessed. "I just know about Slytherin and Hufflepuff."

"Well, the other two are Ravenclaw and Gryffindor." Draco sneered. "My father says that Slytherin is the only house worth being in, and I happen to agree. Hufflepuff is for losers, Ravenclaw is for know-it-alls, and Gryffindor is for stuck-up bigheads who think they can do anything and everything."

"Er-"said Harry. From the way Draco described the houses, Slytherin seemed to be the only one worthwhile. Yet, how could that be when every evil witch and wizard – not to mention Voldemort – had been in that house? He didn't know what to think. "Well, it sounds like Slytherin is the best house, but...I don't think I really want to be in Slytherin." There, Harry thought. That was the truth, plain and simple.

Draco and his friends looked confused, and some a little offended. Blaise spoke up for the first time.

"Why wouldn't you want to be in Slytherin?" he said belligerently. "It's the best and the greatest."

Harry shifted uncomfortably. All five of them were staring at him with undisguised curiosity, and in Blaise's case, open hostility. "Well…" Harry didn't want to talk about his parents, but he couldn't see any other choice. "Vol-I mean, You-Know-Who was in Slytherin, right? So was every witch and wizard who…well, who went bad." Blaise snorted, and Draco scoffed. But Harry pressed on. "You-Know-Who killed my parents, and he nearly killed me, so…" He fell silent.

They sat in silence as the train started to slow. Then Draco spoke up. "Well, we'll see where you get put once we're sorted, won't we?" A familiar smirk was on his face again.

"Come on," he said, once the train stopped. "Come on, get off before they ship you back to London!" And they all jumped onto the platform, one by one.

Immediately, the six of them were engulfed in the crowd of students. A lamp bobbed around over the heads of the students, and Harry heard Hagrid's voice.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"

Hagrid was grinning down at him. Harry smiled at him too. His grin was wiped off his face when Blaise said, "You know that oaf? No wonder you don't seem suited for Slytherin. Only Gryffindors are friends with him." His voice burned with contempt.

As they followed Hagrid down a steep, narrow path, Blaise kept up a running commentary about how Hagrid, who he kept calling 'the oaf', was stupid and uncivilized and how anyone who was friends with him was just as stupid. Finally, Harry could take it no longer.

"Hagrid is not an oaf!" Harry said hotly. Blaise sneered and was about to reply when Hagrid called, "Yeh'll be getting' yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts right round this bend here."

Everyone gave a loud "Ooooooh!" as Hogwarts came into sight.

The narrow path opened suddenly onto the edge of a black lake. On the other side, a vast castle was perched atop a high mountain. There was a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.

Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He was really here; he was really going to Hogwarts!

**Well? What'd you think? It's shorter than my last chapter, but it was harder to write. Please review, I might not update that often anymore, tomorrow school starts! So expect stuff during the weekends maybe? Again, please, please, review! I am begging. Literally. **


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